Untitled Combine (1963) by Robert Rauschenberg
Untitled (1991) by Donald Judd
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Minimalism
While researching the modernist movement, I came across an important concept: minimalism. As a result of superficial and unnecessarily eloquent Victorian era, artists and musicians began to cut out all non-essential elements of their works. The idea was to still be able to convey emotion and essence with the fewest components. In general, when I think of modern art, I picture a lack of emphasis on detail and form and more stress placed on depicting something abstract. Some noteworthy proponents of this movement are Donald Judd, John McCracken, Agnes Martin, and Robert Morris.
Untitled Combine (1963) by Robert Rauschenberg
Untitled (1991) by Donald Judd
Untitled Combine (1963) by Robert Rauschenberg
Untitled (1991) by Donald Judd
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To expand on this, and specifically regarding minimalist music, in the late 20th century, there were many influential minimalist American composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Minimal music is characterized by simplicity, repetition, and a lack of narrative or feeling of "progress" in musical works. This is achieved by the repetition of simple phrases over and over with only small variations in rhythm or melody. The movement originated in New York in the 1960s, representing probably one of the most important/influential contribution from America to Western Classical music (besides jazz, which is arguably outside of Western classical music but certainly influences modern composers) (this is roughly analogous to abstract expressionism and art). There are lots of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and other minimalist work on Youtube, so look up works like Metamorphosis, Koyaanisqatsi, and other works to see examples of this work.
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